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I received this morning, by a mysterious messenger, a curious document; it looks like a series of carriage-wheels, but it is a cipher from Prince Metternich, who is in Bordeaux, and is dated the 1st of May. It took me a long time to puzzle it out: "Vous conseille de partir; pire viendra. Pauline a Vienne; moi triste et tourmente." Very good advice, but rather difficult to follow now.
Passing the Isle aux Coudres, and the lofty promontory of Cape Tourmente, they came to anchor in a quiet channel between the northern shore and the margin of a richly wooded island, where the trees were so thickly hung with grapes that Cartier named it the Island of Bacchus.
They placed posts of archers and slingers, and brought engines which commanded all the slopes which gave access to the river. The besieged had thenceforth no other means of procuring water but by carrying it from an abundant spring which arose at the foot of the wall three hundred feet from the channel of the Tourmente.
It is to be observed, however, that there are other streams in France to which the name Tourmente has been given, and of which the explanation is much more simple. How solemnly still seemed this spectre-haunted spot in the quiet evening! There was the groaning murmur of the stream flowing down its subterranean passage, and there was the low and fitful warble of a nightingale; but this was all.
It was from these old Basque whalers, whose fathers and forefathers for a thousand or thousands of years had visited this coast in commerce, and who knew every cape, bay, island, shoal, and harbor from the Bay of Fundy to Cape Tourmente, as well as from the old Icelandic pilots, that Columbus learned of the existence of this Western Continent; and when he sailed from Lisbon on his 'world-seeking voyage, I make no doubt that he as surely knew, by actual information, of America, as I know that the island of Anticosti is but 200 miles below me.
The news of Kirke's arrival soon reached Champlain, through an Indian named Napagabiscou, or Tregatin, who came in haste to Cape Tourmente. Foucher, the chief of the farmers, proceeded at once to Quebec to confirm the news, and also to inform Champlain that the establishment had been burnt, his cattle destroyed, and all the inhabitants taken prisoners.
"De tout les Pédants qui m'ont le plus tourmenté je compte surtout Poir, son Jeannes et Veissier, qui sont la cause du vol que je fais
"These fellows smell a tourmente in every little cloud from the southwest. We may have some wind and a light snowfall, and that will be an experience for you. Surely you can trust me not to run any real risk?" "Oh, yes. I do, indeed. But I have read of people being caught in these storms and suffering terribly." "Not on the Forno, I assure you.
Lewis Kirke had been careful to seize the cattle pastured at Cap Tourmente and to destroy the crops. When winter came, there were eighty mouths to feed on a scant diet of peas and maize, imperfectly ground, with a reserve supply of twelve hundred eels. Towards spring anything was welcome, and the roots of Solomon's seal were esteemed a feast.
It was just at this time that a number of savages were coming from a distance of fifty or sixty leagues to fish in the river St. Lawrence. Nothing serious happened from the visit of the Iroquois, and Champlain was able to visit his habitation at Cape Tourmente without danger. In his absence, however, a double murder was committed at La Canardière.
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